FC Barcelona debuts Twitter account in Arabic: @fcbarcelona_ara

FC Barcelona now boasts yet another official Twitter account with the launch of @fcbarcelona_ara. The new official account, the Club’s fifth after Catalan (@fcbarcelona_cat), Spanish (@fcbarcelona_es), English (@fcbarcelona), and French (@fcbarcelona_fra), reaffirms the Club’s commitment to strengthening ties with its fans from around the world through social networks.

Worldwide leaders

FC Barcelona’s newest Twitter account is just the latest step the Club has taken to become more global and maintain its position as the leading sports organization on 2.0 platforms. Currently, FC Barcelona has 12.8 million fans on the microblogging platform and it just surpasses 36 million fans on Facebook. On Google+ (the Club was the first team to have a verified profile on the platform) FC Barcelona has organised a video chat with Gerard Piqué, an innovative way to allow the fans to interact with the Club and its players.

The Club also has a presence on YouTube and Tencent Weibo, in addition to a dedicated online space for the Club’s youth system, its other four professional teams, the FC Barcelona Foundation and Barça TV.

Seven different websites

This summer the Club took another step towards becoming more global by adding French and Arabic websites to its web platform. As of now, Barça’s website offers content in seven different languages (Catalan, Spanish, English, Chinese, Arabic, French and Japanese). Barça’s website, which was redesigned this past November, is a crucial element in the Club’s goal of providing accessible information to its fans worldwide.

Dídac Lee, director responsible for New Technologies for the Club, explains that this new Twitter account will allow the Club “to be closer to our Arab friends and fans.” He adds: “We have a great sense of admiration for the Arab world and new technologies are the best way to be close.” Now, through the Club’s website and social networks “we have an opportunity for Barça to communicate in Arabic and this should help us reach each and every one of these fans with 100% Barça content that’s created exclusively for them.”